System and methods for recommending a media asset relating to a character unknown to a user

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for recommending a media asset relating to a character unknown to a user are provided herein. The systems and methods may receive a first media asset viewed by a user, determine a first character in the first media asset, and include the first character in the character viewing profile for the user. Further, the systems and methods may receive a second media asset, including the first character, determine that a second character appears in the second media asset, and determine that the second character is not in the character viewing profile. The systems and methods may recommend a third media asset to the user for the second character.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/449,179, filed Mar. 3, 2017 (now allowed), the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Often a user attempts to view a movie without being familiar withseveral of the characters that are featured in the movie. The user mightbe following a first series and characters from a second series may befeatured in the first series. In cases in which the user is not familiarwith the second series, the user may lack critical knowledge about thenew characters' backgrounds and storylines. As a result, the user is notable to completely understand and enjoy the new movie from the firstseries that has characters from the second series, unfamiliar to theuser. For example, the user may be following the Captain America series.The user has already watched “Captain America: The First Avenger” and isplanning to go to the theater to watch “Captain America: Civil War.”However, “Captain America: Civil War” features Hawkeye, with whom theuser is not familiar, because he is not following the Hawkeye movieseries. As a result, the user is not able to completely understand andenjoy “Captain America: Civil War” because he is unfamiliar withHawkeye's background and storyline.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are provided herein for recommending a media assetrelating to a character unknown to a user. As used herein, the term“character” is defined to mean a fictional person that appears in athreshold number of segments of a media asset. As used herein, the term“threshold number” is defined to mean a number or a percentage set bythe media guidance application, by the user, or another suitable means.The number or the percentage may be the same or different for all mediaassets. In some embodiments, the number or the percentage is a functionof the type of the media asset. For example, a user may be following theCaptain America series. The new Captain America movie, “Captain America:Civil War,” features Captain America and Hawkeye, besides othercharacters. The user is familiar with Captain America because he followsthe Captain America series. However, the user is not familiar withHawkeye. As a result the user may not understand Hawkeye's abilities andscenes involving Hawkeye. The systems and methods disclosed herein mayrecommend that the user view a media asset related to Hawkeye before theuser views “Captain America: Civil War.” An example of such media assetwould be “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow,” which features Hawkeye asa character.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may detect that the userconsumed a first media asset. For example, the first media asset mightbe the first Captain America movie, “Captain America: The FirstAvenger.” The media guidance application may then analyze the firstmedia asset segment by segment and determine a first character thatappears in a threshold number of segments. For example, the mediaguidance application may identify that Captain America is present inmost of the segments, and thus the media guidance application mayestablish Captain America as the first character of the first mediaasset. Further, the media guidance application may store the informationrelated to the first character into a character viewing profile. Forexample, the media guidance application may store Captain America, thecharacter, into a character viewing profile. The media guidanceapplication may store important information about Captain America in thecharacter viewing profile. After some time the media guidanceapplication may detect a second media asset, related to a new mediaasset, that will soon be available. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect that a new Captain America movie will beavailable soon, “Captain America: Civil War.”

Being aware of the fact that the user is following the Captain Americaseries, the media guidance application may analyze media assets relatedto the new movie, such as trailers, reviews, synopses and articles totry to determine what characters appear in “Captain America: Civil War.”The media guidance application may analyze the media assets, related tothe new movie, to determine a second character that appears in athreshold number of segments. For example, the media guidanceapplication may analyze a trailer of “Captain America: Civil War” anddetermine that Hawkeye is a character because it often appearsthroughout the trailer. Further, the media guidance application mayconclude that the second character is not in the character viewingprofile and recommend to the user a third media asset that contains thesecond character. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user is not familiar with Hawkeye and recommend thatthe user view “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow,” which featuresHawkeye. The media guidance application may also recommend comic booksor other suitable forms of media assets to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine if theuser has viewed a substantial portion of the first media asset beforeconcluding that the user is familiar with the first character. The mediaguidance application may use a sensor to determine if the user waspaying enough attention while consuming the first media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may use an eye-tracking sensorto determine if the user was paying attention while viewing “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger.” In another example, the media guidanceapplication may determine the user has viewed a substantial portionbased on the amount of the first media asset that has been played back.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive dataassociated with the first media asset. The media guidance applicationmay split this data into equal portions to make them easier to analyze.The media guidance application may split the data into a plurality ofsegments with each segment containing an equal amount of data. Forexample, the media guidance application may split the video dataassociated with “Captain America: The First Avenger” into a hundredsegments to make them easier to analyze.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive videocharacteristics of the first character. Further, the media guidanceapplication may use those characteristics to determine if the firstcharacter is featured in the first media asset. The media guidanceapplication may determine if the first character is present in eachsegment of the first media asset. If the media guidance applicationdetermines that the first character is present in a large number ofsegments, the media guidance application may determine that the firstcharacter is a featured character in the first media asset. For example,the media guidance application may receive video characteristics ofCaptain America and use those characteristics to determine if CaptainAmerica is a featured character in “Captain America: The First Avenger.”The media guidance application may split the video file that correspondsto the Captain America movie into a plurality of segments. Further, themedia guidance application may use the video characteristics, such asfacial recognition patterns, to determine if Captain America appears ina large number of segments. If the media guidance application concludesthat Captain America does appear in a large number of segments, themedia guidance application may conclude that Captain America is afeatured character in “Captain America: The First Avenger.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive audiocharacteristics of the first character. Further, the media guidanceapplication may use those characteristics to determine if the firstcharacter is an important character in the first media asset. The mediaguidance application may determine if the first character is present ineach segment of the first media asset. If the media guidance applicationdetermines that the first character is present in a big number ofsegments, the media guidance application may determine that the firstcharacter is an important character in the first media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive audiocharacteristics of Captain America and use those characteristics todetermine if Captain America is an important character in “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger.” The media guidance application may splitthe audio file that corresponds to the Captain America movie into aplurality of segments; further the media guidance application may usethe audio characteristics, such as voice patterns, to determine ifCaptain America appears in a big number of segments. If the mediaguidance application concludes that Captain America does appear in a bignumber of segments, the media guidance application may conclude thatCaptain America is an important character in “Captain America: The FirstAvenger.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive the nameof the first character. Further, the media guidance application may usethe name to determine if the first character is an important characterin the first media asset. The media guidance application may determineif the first character is present in each segment of the first mediaasset. If the media guidance application determines that the firstcharacter is present in a big number of segments, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the first character is an importantcharacter in the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive the name of Captain America and use the name todetermine if Captain America is an important character in “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger.” The media guidance application may splitthe subtitle data corresponding to the Captain America movie into aplurality of words; further, the media guidance application may use thename to determine if Captain America's name is any of the words. If themedia guidance application concludes that Captain America's name is abig number of words, the media guidance application may conclude thatCaptain America is an important character in “Captain America: The FirstAvenger.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store the timeat which the user viewed the media asset containing the first characterinto the first character's profile in the character viewing profile. Forexample, if the user saw “Captain America: The First Avenger” on Jan.23, 2017, the media guidance application may store this date in theprofile of the Captain America character in the character viewingprofile. The media guidance application may further use this informationto determine if the user needs to refresh his knowledge of the firstcharacter. For example, the media guidance application may, in January2018, check the profile character of Captain America and may concludethat the user needs to refresh his knowledge of Captain America.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may check howrecently a third media asset, featuring the second character, wasconsumed by the user. If the third media asset was consumed some timeago, the media guidance application may recommend that the user consumethe third media asset one more time. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user is familiar with Hawkeye butthat the user viewed “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow” a year ago. Inthis case, the media guidance application may recommend that the userrewatch “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow” to refresh his knowledge ofHawkeye.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may check howrecently the first media asset, featuring the first character, wasconsumed by the user. If the first media asset was consumed a long timeago, the media guidance application may recommend that the user consumethe first media asset one more time. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user is familiar with Captain Americabut that the user viewed “Captain America: The First Avenger” a yearago. In this case, the media guidance application may recommend that theuser rewatch “Captain America: The First Avenger” to refresh hisknowledge of Captain America.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may consult thecharacter viewing profile of a second user. The media guidanceapplication may receive, upon request, access to the character viewingprofile of the second user. Alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may send a query to the second character viewing profileabout the second character specifically. The media guidance applicationmay determine that the second user is familiar with the secondcharacter, and thus the media guidance application may recommend thatthe first user ask the second user about the second character. Forexample, the media guidance application may request permission to accessthe character viewing profile from the user's friend. Alternatively, themedia guidance application may query the user's friend's characterviewing profile about Captain America specifically. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the user has a friend who is familiarwith Hawkeye. The media guidance application may recommend that the userask his friend about Hawkeye before viewing “Captain America: CivilWar.”

In some aspects, a media guidance application may receive a first mediaasset viewed by a user. Further, the media guidance application maydetermine a first character in the first media asset. Even further, themedia guidance application may include the first character in thecharacter viewing profile for the user. Further, the media guidanceapplication may receive a second media asset including the firstcharacter. Even further, the media guidance application may determinethat a second character appears in the second media asset. Further, themedia guidance application may determine that the second character isnot in the character viewing profile. Even further, the media guidanceapplication may recommend a third media asset to the user for the secondcharacter.

In some aspects, a media guidance application may receive a first mediaasset viewed by the user. The first media asset may, for example, be“Captain America: The First Avenger,” which is the first Captain Americamovie. Further, the media guidance application may split the first mediaasset into a first plurality of segments. The first plurality ofsegments may, for example, be a plurality of video, audio, and/orsubtitles segments. Further, the media guidance application maydetermine that a first character appears in a threshold number of thefirst plurality of segments. The first character may, for example, beCaptain America. Further, the media guidance application may determinewhether the first character has a corresponding first data structure ina character viewing profile for the user. The media guidance applicationmay, in response to determining that the first character does not havethe corresponding first data structure in the character viewing profile,insert the first data structure in the character viewing profile.Further, the media guidance application may, in response to determiningthat the first character has the corresponding first data structure inthe character viewing profile, update the first data structure in thecharacter viewing profile. Further, the media guidance application mayreceive a second media asset, including the first character, to beviewed by the user. The second media asset may, for example, be atrailer of “Captain America: Civil War.” Further, the media guidanceapplication may split the second media asset into a second plurality ofsegments. Further, the media guidance application may determine that asecond character appears in the threshold number of the second pluralityof segments. The second character may, for example, be Hawkeye. Further,the media guidance application may determine whether the secondcharacter has a corresponding second data structure in the characterviewing profile. Even further, the media guidance application may, inresponse to determining that the second character does not have thecorresponding second data structure in the character viewing profile,recommend a third media asset to the user for the second character. Thethird media may, for example, be “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow”.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive a sensorinput. Further, the media guidance application may determine that theuser consumed the threshold number of the first plurality of segments,based on the sensor input. For example, while watching “Captain America:The First Avenger” the media guidance application may receive input froman eye-tracking sensor. Further, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user's eyes were focused on his phone throughout mostof the movie, and thus the media guidance application may conclude thatthe user is not familiar with Captain America. Even further, the mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the userconsumed the threshold number of the first plurality of segments,receive the first media asset viewed by the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, duringsplitting, a data structure associated with the first media asset. Asused herein, the term “data structure” is defined to include datacharacterizing a media asset. Examples of such data included in the datastructure may be listings of frames, listings of sentences, listing ofaudio sequences, and the like. Further, the media guidance applicationmay split the data structure into a third plurality of segments, whereineach segment may contain an equal portion of the data structure. As usedherein, “splitting the data structure” is defined to mean dividing thedata included in the data structure into smaller segments. For example,the data structure may include twenty frames, and splitting the datastructure may comprise creating two segments, the first segmentcomprising frames one through ten and the second segment comprisingframes eleven through twenty. For example, the media guidanceapplication may split “Captain America: The First Avenger” into ahundred segments with each segment containing an equal amount of data.Thus, the media guidance application may analyze each of the segmentseasily.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, duringreceiving the indication that the first character appears in thethreshold number of the first plurality of segments, videocharacteristics of the first character. Further, the media guidanceapplication may receive a segment from the first plurality of segments.Even further, the media guidance application may receive a set of framesrelating to the segments. Further, the media guidance application mayextract a frame from the set of frames. Even further, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether the first character is in the frame,based on the video characteristics of the first character. Further, themedia guidance application may, in response to determining that thefirst character is in the frame, increase a counter associated with thefirst character. Even further, the media guidance application maydetermine whether there are segments remaining to be analyzed. Further,the media guidance application may, in response to determining thatthere are no segments remaining to be analyzed, determine that thecounter is greater than the threshold number. Even further, the mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the counter isgreater than the threshold number, determine that the first characterappears in a threshold number of the first plurality of segments. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive the facialcharacteristics of Captain America. Further, the media guidanceapplication may split the video data associated with “Captain America:The First Avenger” into multiple segments and search for CaptainAmerica, in each of those segments, using facial recognition techniques.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, duringreceiving the indication that the first character appears in thethreshold number of the first plurality of segments, audiocharacteristics of the first character. Further, the media guidanceapplication may receive a segment from the first plurality of segments.Even further, the media guidance application may receive a set of wordsrelating to the segments. Further, the media guidance application mayextract a word from the set of words. Even further, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether the first character said the word,based on the audio characteristics of the first character. Further, themedia guidance application may, in response to determining that thefirst character said the word, increase a counter associated with thefirst character. Even further, the media guidance application maydetermine whether there are segments remaining to be analyzed. Further,the media guidance application may, in response to determining thatthere are no segments remaining to be analyzed, determine that thecounter is greater than the threshold number. Even further, the mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the counter isgreater than the threshold number, determine that the first characterappears in a threshold number of the first plurality of segments. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive the voice samplesbelonging to Captain America. Further, the media guidance applicationmay split the audio data associated with “Captain America: The FirstAvenger” into multiple segments and search for Captain America, in eachof those segments, using voice recognition techniques.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, duringreceiving the indication that the first character appears in thethreshold number of the first plurality of segments, a name of the firstcharacter. Further, the media guidance application may receive a segmentfrom the first plurality of segments. Even further, the media guidanceapplication may receive a set of words relating to the segments.Further, the media guidance application may extract a word from the setof words. Even further, the media guidance application may determinewhether the name of the first character is the word. Further, the mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the firstcharacter said the word, increase a counter associated with the firstcharacter. Even further, the media guidance application may determinewhether there are segments remaining to be analyzed. Further, the mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that there are nosegments remaining to be analyzed, determine that the counter is greaterthan the threshold number. Even further, the media guidance applicationmay, in response to determining that the counter is greater than thethreshold number, determine that the first character appears in athreshold number of the first plurality of segments. For example, themedia guidance application may receive the name of Captain America.Further, the media guidance application may split the subtitle dataassociated with “Captain America: The First Avenger” into words andsearch for Captain America's name in each of those segments.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store, duringcreating and/or splitting the first data structure, a time stamp in thefirst data structure corresponding to when the user viewed the firstmedia asset. For example, when the user first watches a movie containingCaptain America, e.g., “Captain America: The First Avenger,” the mediaguidance application may store the date and time at which the userviewed the movie in the first data structure associated with CaptainAmerica.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, inresponse to determining that the second character has the correspondingsecond data structure in the character viewing profile, a thresholdperiod relating to a user retention of the second character. Further,the media guidance application may determine a current period betweenthe time stamp and a current time. Further, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the current period exceeds the thresholdperiod. Even further, the media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the current period exceeds the threshold period,recommend the third media asset to the user for the second character.For example, the media guidance application may determine that the useris familiar with Hawkeye but that the user viewed “Next Avengers: Heroesof Tomorrow” 10 years ago; in this case the media guidance applicationmay recommend that the user re-watch “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow”to refresh his knowledge of Hawkeye.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive anexpiration period associated with the first character. Further, themedia guidance application may determine a current period between thetime stamp and a current time. Further, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the current period exceeds the expiration period.Even further, the media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the current period exceeds the expiration period,recommend the first media asset to the user for the first character. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the user isfamiliar with Captain America but that the user viewed “Captain America:The First Avenger” 10 year ago, in this case the media guidanceapplication may recommend that the user re-watches “Captain America: TheFirst Avenger” to refresh his knowledge of Captain America.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive a secondcharacter viewing profile of a second user. The second user may, forexample, be a friend of the user. Further, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the second character has thecorresponding second data structure in the second character viewingprofile. Even further, the media guidance application may, in responseto determining that the second character has the corresponding seconddata structure in the second character viewing profile, recommend to theuser to refer to the second user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user has a friend who is familiarwith Hawkeye. The media guidance application may recommend that the userask his friend about Hawkeye, before viewing “Captain America: CivilWar.”

Often a user attempts to consume a media asset without being familiarwith several of the characters that are featured in the media asset. Forexample, the user might be following a first series and characters froma second series are featured in the first series. In cases in which theuser is not familiar with the second series, the user might lackcritical knowledge about the new character's background and storyline.As a result, the user is not able to completely understand and enjoy thenew media asset from the first series that has characters from thesecond series, unfamiliar to the user.

The conventional approach to this problem is for the user to consume thesecond media asset, related to the unknown character, after the userconsumes the first media asset. The systems and methods disclosed hereinprovide a solution that allows the user to become familiar with theunknown character before the user consumes the first media asset, thusenabling the user to fully understand and enjoy the consumption of thefirst media asset. This solution is achieved by a media guidanceapplication that may receive a first media asset viewed by a user,determine a first character in the first media asset, include the firstcharacter in the character viewing profile for the user, receive asecond media asset including the first character, determine that asecond character appears in the second media asset, determine that thesecond character is not in the character viewing profile, and recommenda third media asset to the user for the second character. The proposedsolution is different from the conventional approach because theproposed solution allows the user to be automatically notified andbecome familiar with the unknown character before the user consumes thefirst media asset, while the conventional approach at most leads to theuser becoming familiar with the unknown character after the user hasalready consumed the first media asset.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/oraspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in thisdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of an interactive media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device for including a first characterin the character viewing profile in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of an interactive media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device for recommending a media assetrelating to a character unknown to the user in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows yet another illustrative example of an interactive mediaguidance application implemented on a user device for selecting mediaguidance application options in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 5 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) devicein accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for recommending athird media asset relating to a second character, unknown to a user, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 depicts another illustrative flowchart of a process forrecommending a third media asset relating to a second character, unknownto a user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningthat the first character appears in the threshold number of the firstplurality of segments in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 11 depicts another illustrative flowchart of a process fordetermining that the first character appears in the threshold number ofthe first plurality of segments in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 12 depicts yet another illustrative flowchart of a process fordetermining that the first character appears in the threshold number ofthe first plurality of segments in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are provided herein for recommending a media assetrelating to a character unknown to a user. As used herein, the term“character” is defined to mean a fictional person that appears in athreshold number of segments of a media asset. As used herein, the term“threshold number” is defined to mean a number or a percentage set bythe media guidance application or by the user. The number or thepercentage can be the same or different for all the media assets; thenumber or the percentage can be a function of the type of the mediaasset. For example, a user may be following the Captain America series.The new Captain America movie, “Captain America: Civil War,” featuresCaptain America and Hawkeye, besides other characters. The user isfamiliar with Captain America because he follows the Captain Americaseries. However, the user is not familiar with Hawkeye. As a result, theuser may not understand Hawkeye's abilities and scenes involvingHawkeye. The systems and methods disclosed herein may recommend that theuser view a media asset related to Hawkeye before the user views“Captain America: Civil War.” An example of such media asset would be“Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow,” which features Hawkeye as acharacter.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of an interactive media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device for including a first characterin the character viewing profile in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. As depicted, FIG. 1 includes an alert 102, a sub-alert104, a first character 106, a character viewing profile 108, and a firstmedia asset 110. The media guidance application may present alert 102and sub-alert 104 on display 612 when the user finishes consuming firstmedia asset 110. Alert 102 and sub-alert 104 may notify the user thatfirst character 106 was added to character viewing profile 108. Thecontrol circuitry 604 may identify first character 106 and add firstcharacter 106 to character viewing profile 108. The processing circuitrymay identify first character 106 and add first character 106 tocharacter viewing profile 108. Storage 608 may contain character viewingprofile 108.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of an interactive media guidanceapplication implemented on a user device for recommending a media assetrelating to a character unknown to the user in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. As depicted, FIG. 2 includes alert 102,sub-alert 104, a second media asset 202, a third media asset 204, and asecond character 206. The media guidance application may present alert102 and sub-alert 104 on display 612. Alert 102 and sub-alert 104 mayrecommend to the user third media asset 204 for second character 206,which is featured in second media asset 202. The control circuitry 604may identify second character 206, second media asset 202, and thirdmedia asset 204. The processing circuitry 606 may identify secondcharacter 206, second media asset 202, and third media asset 204.

FIG. 3 shows yet another illustrative example of an interactive mediaguidance application implemented on a user device for selecting mediaguidance application options in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. As depicted, FIG. 3 includes alert 102, preference options302-310, and options 312 and 314. The media guidance application maypresent alert 102 on display 612. Alert 102 may allow the user to selectthe expiration period for a character—preference option 302. Preferenceoption 302 may be specified in terms of days, weeks, months, years orany other conventional period of time. Preference option 302 may be setby the user or by the media guidance application. Preference option 302may be set for a specific character, for all characters, or as afunction of the type of the character and/or media asset.

Alert 102 may allow the user to select the reminder period beforeviewing a new media asset—preference option 304. Preference option 304may be specified in terms of days, weeks, months, years or any otherconventional period of time. Preference option 304 may be set by theuser or by the media guidance application. Preference option 304 may beset for a specific character, for all characters, or as a function ofthe type of the character and/or media asset.

Alert 102 may allow the user to select the threshold number ofsegments—preference option 306. Preference option 306 may be specifiedas a number or a percent. Preference option 306 may be set by the useror by the media guidance application. Preference option 306 may be setfor a specific character, for all characters, or as a function of thetype of the character and/or media asset.

Alert 102 may allow the user to select the number of recommended mediaassets per unknown character—preference option 308. Preference option308 may be set by the user or by the media guidance application.Preference option 308 may be set for a specific character, for allcharacters, or as a function of the type of the character and/or mediaasset.

Alert 102 may allow the user to select the types of recommended mediaassets for the unknown character—preference option 310. Preferenceoption 310 may be a movie, a comic book, a trailer, a cartoon or anyother media asset. Preference option 310 may be set by the user or bythe media guidance application. Preference option 310 may be set for aspecific character, for all characters, or as a function of the type ofthe character and/or media asset.

Alert 102 may allow the user to select option 312 or option 314.Selecting option 312 may allow the user to save the selected preferenceoptions 302-310. Control circuitry 604 may store the preference options302-310 in storage 608. Processing circuitry 604 may store thepreference options 302-310 in storage 608. Selecting option 314 mayallow the user to cancel the selected preference options 302-310.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may detect that the userconsumed a first media asset 110. For example, the first media asset 110might be the first Captain America movie, “Captain America: The FirstAvenger.” The media guidance application may then analyze the firstmedia asset 110 segment by segment and determine a first character 106that appears in a threshold number of segments. For example, the mediaguidance application may identify that Captain America is present inmost of the segments, and thus the media guidance application mayestablish Captain America as the first character 106 of the first mediaasset 110. Further, the media guidance application may store theinformation related to the first character 106 into a character viewingprofile 108. For example, the media guidance application may storeCaptain America, the character, into a character viewing profile 108.The media guidance application may store important information aboutCaptain America in the character viewing profile 108. After some timethe media guidance application may detect a second media asset 202,related to a new media asset, which will soon be available. For example,the media guidance application may detect that a new Captain Americamovie will be available soon—“Captain America: Civil War.”

Being aware of the fact that the user is following the Captain Americaseries, the media guidance application may analyze media assets relatedto the new movie, such as trailers, reviews, synopses and articles totry to determine what characters appear in “Captain America: Civil War.”The media guidance application may split the second media asset 202,related to the new movie, to determine a second character 206 thatappears in a threshold number of segments. For example, the mediaguidance application may analyze a trailer of “Captain America: CivilWar” and determine that Hawkeye is a character because it often appearsthroughout the trailer. Further, the media guidance application mayconclude that the second character 206 is not in the character viewingprofile 108 and recommend a third media asset 204, which contains thesecond character 206, to the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may realize that the user is not familiar with Hawkeye andrecommend that the user watch “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow,” whichfeatures Hawkeye. The media guidance application may also recommendcomic books or other forms of media assets to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine if theuser has viewed enough of the first media asset 110 before concludingthat the user is familiar with the first character 106. The mediaguidance application may use a sensor to determine if the user waspaying enough attention while consuming the first media asset 110. Forexample, the media guidance application may use an eye-tracking sensorto determine if the user was paying attention while viewing “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive dataassociated with the first media asset 110; the media guidanceapplication may then split this data into equal portions, to make themeasier to analyze. The media guidance application may split the datainto a third plurality of segments with each segment containing an equalamount of data. For example, the media guidance application may splitthe video data associated with “Captain America: The First Avenger” intoa hundred equal segments to make them easier to analyze.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive videocharacteristics of the first character 106. Further, the media guidanceapplication may use those characteristics to determine if the firstcharacter 106 is an important character in the first media asset 110.The media guidance application may determine if the first character 106is present in each segment of the first media asset 110. If the mediaguidance application determines that the first character 106 is presentin a big number of segments, the media guidance application maydetermine that the first character 106 is an important character in thefirst media asset 110. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive video characteristics of Captain America and use thosecharacteristics to determine if Captain America is an importantcharacter in “Captain America: The First Avenger.” The media guidanceapplication may split the video file that corresponds to the CaptainAmerica movie, into a plurality of segments; further, the media guidanceapplication may use the video characteristics, such as facial patterns,to determine if Captain America appears in a big number of segments. Ifthe media guidance application concludes that Captain America doesappear in a big number of segments, the media guidance application mayconclude that Captain America is an important character in “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive audiocharacteristics of the first character 106. Further, the media guidanceapplication may use those characteristics to determine if the firstcharacter 106 is an important character in the first media asset 110.The media guidance application may determine if the first character 106is present in each segment of the first media asset 110. If the mediaguidance application determines that the first character 106 is presentin a big number of segments, the media guidance application maydetermine that the first character 106 is an important character in thefirst media asset 110. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive audio characteristics of Captain America and use thosecharacteristics to determine if Captain America is an importantcharacter in “Captain America: The First Avenger.” The media guidanceapplication may split the audio file that corresponds to the CaptainAmerica movie into a plurality of segments; further, the media guidanceapplication may use the audio characteristics, such as voice patterns,to determine if Captain America appears in a big number of segments. Ifthe media guidance application concludes that Captain America doesappear in a big number of segments, the media guidance application mayconclude that Captain America is an important character in “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive the nameof the first character 106. Further, the media guidance application mayuse the name to determine if the first character 106 is an importantcharacter in the first media asset 110. The media guidance applicationmay determine if the first character 106 is present in each segment ofthe first media asset 110. If the media guidance application determinesthat the first character 106 is present in a big number of segments, themedia guidance application may determine that the first character 106 isan important character in the first media asset 110. For example, themedia guidance application may receive the name of Captain America anduse the name to determine if Captain America is an important characterin “Captain America: The First Avenger.” The media guidance applicationmay split the subtitle data corresponding to the Captain America movie,into a plurality of words; further, the media guidance application mayuse the name to determine if Captain America's name is any of the words.If the media guidance application concludes that Captain America's nameis a big number of words, the media guidance application may concludethat Captain America is an important character in “Captain America: TheFirst Avenger.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store the timeat which the user viewed the media asset containing the first character106 into the first character's 106 profile in the character viewingprofile 108. For example, if the user saw “Captain America: The FirstAvenger” on Jan. 23, 2017, the media guidance application may store thisdate in the profile of the Captain America character in the characterviewing profile 108. The media guidance application may further use thisinformation to determine if the user needs to refresh his knowledge ofthe first character 106. For example, the media guidance applicationmay, in January 2018, check the profile character of Captain America andmay conclude that the user needs to refresh his knowledge of CaptainAmerica.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may check howrecently a third media asset 204, featuring the second character 206,was consumed by the user. If the third media asset 204 was consumed sometime ago, the media guidance application may recommend that the userconsume the third media asset 204 one more time. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the user is familiar withHawkeye but that the user viewed “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow” ayear ago; in this case, the media guidance application may recommendthat the user re-watches “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow” to refreshhis knowledge of Hawkeye.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may check howrecently was the first media asset 110, featuring the first character106, consumed by the user. If the first media asset 110 was consumed along time ago, the media guidance application may recommend that theuser consumes the first media asset 110 one more time. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that the user is familiar withCaptain America but that the user viewed “Captain America: The FirstAvenger” a year ago, in this case the media guidance application mayrecommend that the user re-watch “Captain America: The First Avenger” torefresh his knowledge of Captain America.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may consult thecharacter viewing profile 108 of a second user. The media guidanceapplication may receive, upon requesting, access to the characterviewing profile 108 of the second user. Alternatively, the mediaguidance application may send a query to the second user's characterviewing profile 108 about the second character 206 specifically. Themedia guidance application may determine that the second user isfamiliar with the second character 206, and thus the media guidanceapplication may recommend that the first user asks the second user aboutthe second character 206. For example, the media guidance applicationmay request permission to access the character viewing profile 108 fromthe user's friend. Alternatively, the media guidance application mayquery the user's friend's character viewing profile 108 about CaptainAmerica specifically. The media guidance application may determine thatthe user has a friend who is familiar with Hawkeye. The media guidanceapplication may recommend that the user ask his friend about Hawkeye,before viewing “Captain America: Civil War.”

In some aspects, a media guidance application may receive a first mediaasset 110 viewed by a user. Further, the media guidance application maydetermine a first character 106 in the first media asset 110. Evenfurther, the media guidance application may include the first character106 in the character viewing profile 108 for the user. Further, themedia guidance application may receive a second media asset 202including the first character 106. Even further, the media guidanceapplication may determine that a second character 206 appears in thesecond media asset 202. Further, the media guidance application maydetermine that the second character 206 is not in the character viewingprofile 108. Even further, the media guidance application may recommenda third media asset 204 to the user for the second character 206.

In some aspects, a media guidance application may receive a first mediaasset 110 viewed by the user. The first media asset 110 may, forexample, be “Captain America: The First Avenger,” which is the firstCaptain America movie. Further, the media guidance application may splitthe first media asset 110 into a first plurality of segments. The firstplurality of segments may, for example, be a plurality of video, audio,and/or subtitles segments. Further, the media guidance application maydetermine that a first character 106 appears in a threshold number ofthe first plurality of segments. The first character 106 may, forexample, be Captain America. Further, the media guidance application maydetermine whether the first character 106 has a corresponding first datastructure in a character viewing profile 108 for the user. The mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the firstcharacter 106 does not have the corresponding first data structure inthe character viewing profile 108, insert the first data structure inthe character viewing profile 108. Further, the media guidanceapplication may, in response to determining that the first character 106has the corresponding first data structure in the character viewingprofile 108, update the first data structure in the character viewingprofile 108. Further, the media guidance application may receive asecond media asset 202, including the first character 106, to be viewedby the user. The second media asset 202 may, for example, be a trailerof “Captain America: Civil War.” Further, the media guidance applicationmay split the second media asset 202 into a second plurality ofsegments. Further, the media guidance application may determine that asecond character 206 appears in the threshold number of the secondplurality of segments. The second character 206 may, for example, beHawkeye. Further, the media guidance application may determine whetherthe second character 206 has a corresponding second data structure inthe character viewing profile 108. Even further, the media guidanceapplication may, in response to determining that the second character206 does not have the corresponding second data structure in thecharacter viewing profile 108, recommend a third media asset 204 to theuser for the second character 206. The third media may, for example, be“Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive a sensorinput. Further, the media guidance application may determine that theuser consumed the threshold number of the first plurality of segments,based on the sensor input. For example, while watching “Captain America:The First Avenger,” the media guidance application may receive inputfrom an eye-tracking sensor. Further, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user's eyes were focused on his phone throughout mostof the movie and thus the media guidance application may conclude thatthe user is not familiar with Captain America. Even further, the mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the userconsumed the threshold number of the first plurality of segments,receive the first media asset viewed by the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, duringsplitting, a data structure associated with the first media asset 110.Further, the media guidance application may split the data structureinto a third plurality of segments, wherein each segment may contain anequal portion of the data structure. For example, the media guidanceapplication may split “Captain America: The First Avenger” into ahundred segments with each segment containing an equal amount of data.Thus, the media guidance application may analyze each of the segmentseasily.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, duringreceiving the indication that the first character 106 appears in thethreshold number of the first plurality of segments, videocharacteristics of the first character 106. Further, the media guidanceapplication may receive a segment from the first plurality of segments.Even further, the media guidance application may receive a set of framesrelating to the segments. Further, the media guidance application mayextract a frame from the set of frames. Even further, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether the first character 106 is in theframe, based on the video characteristics of the first character 106.Further, the media guidance application may, in response to determiningthat the first character 106 is in the frame, increase a counterassociated with the first character 106. Even further, the mediaguidance application may determine whether there are segments remainingto be analyzed. Further, the media guidance application may, in responseto determining that there are no segments remaining to be analyzed,determine that the counter is greater than the threshold number. Evenfurther, the media guidance application may, in response to determiningthat the counter is greater than the threshold number, determine thatthe first character 106 appears in a threshold number of the firstplurality of segments. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive the facial characteristics of Captain America. Further, themedia guidance application may split the video data associated with“Captain America: The First Avenger” into multiple segments and searchfor Captain America, in each of those segments, using facial recognitiontechniques.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, duringreceiving the indication that the first character 106 appears in thethreshold number of the first plurality of segments, audiocharacteristics of the first character 106. Further, the media guidanceapplication may receive a segment from the first plurality of segments.Even further, the media guidance application may receive a set of wordsrelating to the segments. Further, the media guidance application mayextract a word from the set of words. Even further, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether the first character 106 said the word,based on the audio characteristics of the first character 106. Further,the media guidance application may, in response to determining that thefirst character 106 said the word, increase a counter associated withthe first character 106. Even further, the media guidance applicationmay determine whether there are segments remaining to be analyzed.Further, the media guidance application may, in response to determiningthat there are no segments remaining to be analyzed, determine that thecounter is greater than the threshold number. Even further, the mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the counter isgreater than the threshold number, determine that the first character106 appears in a threshold number of the first plurality of segments.For example, the media guidance application may receive the voicesamples belonging to Captain America. Further, the media guidanceapplication may split the audio data associated with “Captain America:The First Avenger” into multiple segments and search for CaptainAmerica, in each of those segments, using voice recognition techniques.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, duringreceiving the indication that the first character 106 appears in thethreshold number of the first plurality of segments, a name of the firstcharacter 106. Further, the media guidance application may receive asegment from the first plurality of segments. Even further, the mediaguidance application may receive a set of words relating to thesegments. Further, the media guidance application may extract a wordfrom the set of words. Even further, the media guidance application maydetermine whether the name of the first character 106 is the word.Further, the media guidance application may, in response to determiningthat the first character 106 said the word, increase a counterassociated with the first character 106. Even further, the mediaguidance application may determine whether there are segments remainingto be analyzed. Further, the media guidance application may, in responseto determining that there are no segments remaining to be analyzed,determine that the counter is greater than the threshold number. Evenfurther, the media guidance application may, in response to determiningthat the counter is greater than the threshold number, determine thatthe first character 106 appears in a threshold number of the firstplurality of segments. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive the name of Captain America. Further, the media guidanceapplication may split the subtitle data associated with “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger” into words and search for Captain America'sname in each of those segments.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store, duringcreating and/or splitting the first data structure, a time stamp in thefirst data structure corresponding to when the user viewed the firstmedia asset 110. For example, when the user first watches a moviecontaining Captain America, e.g., “Captain America: The First Avenger,”the media guidance application may store the date and time at which theuser viewed the movie in the first data structure associated withCaptain America.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, inresponse to determining that the second character 206 has thecorresponding second data structure in the character viewing profile108, a threshold period relating to a user retention of the secondcharacter 206. Further, the media guidance application may determine acurrent period between the time stamp and a current time. Further, themedia guidance application may determine that the current period exceedsthe threshold period. Even further, the media guidance application may,in response to determining that the current period exceeds the thresholdperiod, recommend the third media asset 204 to the user for the secondcharacter 206. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the user is familiar with Hawkeye but that the user viewed “NextAvengers: Heroes of Tomorrow” 10 years ago; in this case, the mediaguidance application may recommend that the user re-watch “NextAvengers: Heroes of Tomorrow” to refresh his knowledge of Hawkeye.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive anexpiration period associated with the first character 106. Further, themedia guidance application may determine a current period between thetime stamp and a current time. Further, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the current period exceeds the expiration period.Even further, the media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the current period exceeds the expiration period,recommend the first media asset 110 to the user for the first character106. For example, the media guidance application may determine that theuser is familiar with Captain America but that the user viewed “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger” 10 years ago; in this case; the mediaguidance application may recommend that the user re-watch “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger” to refresh his knowledge of Captain America.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive a secondcharacter viewing profile 108 of a second user. The second user may, forexample, be a friend of the user. Further, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the second character 206 has thecorresponding second data structure in the second character viewingprofile 108. Even further, the media guidance application may, inresponse to determining that the second character 206 has thecorresponding second data structure in the second character viewingprofile 108, recommend to the user to refer to the second user. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the user hasa friend who is familiar with Hawkeye. The media guidance applicationmay recommend that the user ask his friend about Hawkeye, before viewing“Captain America: Civil War.”

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 4-5 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 4-5 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 4-5 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 4 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 400arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 400 may include grid 402 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 404, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 406, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 402 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 408, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 410. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 410 may be provided inprogram information region 412. Region 412 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 402 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 414, recorded content listing 416, andInternet content listing 418. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 400 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings414, 416, and 418 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 402 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 402. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 420. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 420.)

Display 400 may also include video region 422, and options region 426.Video region 422 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 422 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 402. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 426 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 426 may be part of display 400 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 426 may concern features related to program listings in grid 402or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 7. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 5. Video mosaic display 500 includes selectable options 502 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 500, television listings option 504 isselected, thus providing listings 506, 508, 510, and 512 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 500 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 508 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 514 and text portion 516.Media portion 514 and/or text portion 516 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 514 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 500 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 506 islarger than listings 508, 510, and 512), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 6 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 600. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 7.User equipment device 600 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 602. I/O path 602 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 604, which includesprocessing circuitry 606 and storage 608. Control circuitry 604 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 602. I/O path 602 may connect control circuitry 604 (andspecifically processing circuitry 606) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 604 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 606. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 604 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 608). Specifically, control circuitry 604 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 604 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 604 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 604 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 7). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 608 thatis part of control circuitry 604. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 608 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 7, may be used to supplementstorage 608 or instead of storage 608.

Control circuitry 604 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 604 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 600. Circuitry 604 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 608 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 600, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 608.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 604 using user inputinterface 610. User input interface 610 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 612 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600. For example, display 612 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 610may be integrated with or combined with display 612. Display 612 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 612 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 612 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 612.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry604. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 604.Speakers 614 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 612 may be played throughspeakers 614. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers614.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 600. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage608), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 604 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 608 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 604 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 610. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 610 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 600 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 600. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 604 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 604) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 600. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 600.Equipment device 600 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 610 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 600 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 610.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 600 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 604). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 604 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 604. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 604. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 600 of FIG. 6 can be implemented in system 700 ofFIG. 7 as user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704,wireless user communications device 706, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 6 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, or awireless user communications device 706. For example, user televisionequipment 702 may, like some user computer equipment 704, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 704 may, like some television equipment 702, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 704, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 706.

In system 700, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 7 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 702, user computer equipment 704, wireless user communicationsdevice 706) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 714.Namely, user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, andwireless user communications device 706 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 714 via communications paths 708, 710, and 712, respectively.

Communications network 714 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 708, 710, and 712 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 712 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 7 it is awireless path and paths 708 and 710 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 708, 710, and 712, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 714.

System 700 includes content source 716 and media guidance data source718 coupled to communications network 714 via communication paths 720and 722, respectively. Paths 720 and 722 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 708, 710,and 712. Communications with the content source 716 and media guidancedata source 718 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 716 and 718 withuser equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 are shown as throughcommunications network 714, in some embodiments, sources 716 and 718 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 708, 710, and 712.

Content source 716 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 716 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 716 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 716 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 718 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 718may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 718 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 718 mayprovide user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 608, and executedby control circuitry 604 of a user equipment device 600. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 604 of user equipment device 600and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 718) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 718), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 718 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices702, 704, and 706 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 700 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 7.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 714.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 716 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 702 and user computer equipment 704may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 706 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 714. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 716 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 718. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and wirelessuser communications device 706. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 704 or wireless usercommunications device 706 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 704. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 714. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 6.

As referred to herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated asa result of. For example, a first action being performed in response toa second action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred to herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for recommending athird media asset 204 relating to a second character 206, unknown to auser, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 800may be executed by control circuitry 604 (e.g., in a manner instructedto control circuitry 604 by the media guidance application). Controlcircuitry 604 may be part of a remote server separated from the user bycommunication network 714.

Process 800 begins at 802, when control circuitry 404 receives a firstmedia asset 110 viewed by a user. User input interface 610 can be usedto receive the first media asset 110 viewed by the user. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may receive a sensor input.Further, the media guidance application may determine that the userconsumed the threshold number of the first plurality of segments, basedon the sensor input. For example, while watching “Captain America: TheFirst Avenger,” the media guidance application may receive input from aneye-tracking sensor. Further, the media guidance application maydetermine that user's eyes were focused on his phone throughout most ofthe movie, and thus the media guidance application may conclude that theuser is not familiar with Captain America. Even further, the mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the userconsumed the threshold number of the first plurality of segments,receive the first media asset viewed by the user.

At 804, control circuitry 404 splits the first media asset 110 into afirst plurality of segments. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may receive, during splitting, a data structure associatedwith the first media asset 110. Further, the media guidance applicationmay split the data structure into a third plurality of segments, whereineach segment may contain an equal portion of the data structure. Forexample, the media guidance application may split “Captain America: TheFirst Avenger” into a hundred segments with each segment containing anequal amount of data. Thus, the media guidance application may analyzeeach of the segments easily.

At 806, control circuitry 404 determines that a first character 106appears in a threshold number of the first plurality of segments. Waysof determining that the first character appears in the threshold numberof the first plurality of segments have been described below in respectto FIG. 10-12.

At 808, control circuitry 404 determines whether the first character 106has a corresponding first data structure in a character viewing profile108 for the user.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the first character 106 doesnot have the corresponding first data structure in the character viewingprofile 108 for the user, process 800 continues to 810. At 810, controlcircuitry 404 inserts the first data structure in the character viewingprofile 108. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maystore, during inserting the first data structure, a time stamp in thefirst data structure corresponding to when the user viewed the firstmedia asset 110. For example, when the user first watches a moviecontaining Captain America, e.g. “Captain America: The First Avenger,”the media guidance application may store the date and time at which theuser viewed the movie in the first data structure associated withCaptain America. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayreceive an expiration period associated with the first character 106.Further, the media guidance application may determine a current periodbetween the time stamp and a current time. Further, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the current period exceeds the expirationperiod. Even further, the media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the current period exceeds the expiration period,recommend the first media asset 110 to the user for the first character106. For example, the media guidance application may determine that theuser is familiar with Captain America but that the user viewed “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger” 10 years ago; in this case; the mediaguidance application may recommend that the user re-watch “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger” to refresh his knowledge of Captain America.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the first character 106 has thecorresponding first data structure in the character viewing profile 108for the user, process 800 continues to 812. At 812, control circuitry404 updates the first data structure in the character viewing profile108. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store,during updating the first data structure, a time stamp in the first datastructure corresponding to when the user viewed the first media asset110. For example, when the user first watches a movie containing CaptainAmerica, e.g. “Captain America: The First Avenger,” the media guidanceapplication may store the date and time at which the user viewed themovie in the first data structure associated with Captain America. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may receive anexpiration period associated with the first character 106. Further, themedia guidance application may determine a current period between thetime stamp and a current time. Further, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the current period exceeds the expiration period.Even further, the media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the current period exceeds the expiration period,recommend the first media asset 110 to the user for the first character106. For example, the media guidance application may determine that theuser is familiar with Captain America but that the user viewed “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger” 10 years ago; in this case, the mediaguidance application may recommend that the user re-watch “CaptainAmerica: The First Avenger” to refresh his knowledge of Captain America.

At 814, control circuitry 404 receives a second media asset 202,including the first character 106, to be viewed by the user. User inputinterface 610 can be used to receive the second media asset 202,including the first character 106, to be viewed by the user.

At 816, control circuitry 404 splits the second media asset 202 into asecond plurality of segments.

At 818, control circuitry 404 determines that a second character 206appears in the threshold number of the second plurality of segments.

At 820, control circuitry 404 determines whether the second character206 has a corresponding second data structure in the character viewingprofile 108.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the second character 206 doesnot have the corresponding second data structure in the characterviewing profile 108, process 800 continues to 822. At 822, controlcircuitry 404 recommends a third media asset 204 to the user for thesecond character 206. Display 612 can be used to recommend the thirdmedia asset 204 to the user for the second character 206. Speakers 614can be used to recommend a third media asset 204 to the user for thesecond character 206.

At 824, process 800 optionally continues to step 902 of process 900. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, inresponse to determining that the second character 206 has thecorresponding second data structure in the character viewing profile108, a threshold period relating to a user retention of the secondcharacter 206. Further, the media guidance application may determine acurrent period between the time stamp and a current time. Further, themedia guidance application may determine that the current period exceedsthe threshold period. Even further, the media guidance application may,in response to determining that the current period exceeds the thresholdperiod, recommend the third media asset 204 to the user for the secondcharacter 206. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the user is familiar with Hawkeye but that the user viewed “NextAvengers: Heroes of Tomorrow” 10 years ago; in this case, the mediaguidance application may recommend that the user re-watch “NextAvengers: Heroes of Tomorrow” to refresh his knowledge of Hawkeye.

FIG. 9 depicts another illustrative flowchart of a process forrecommending a third media asset 204 relating to a second character 206,unknown to a user, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Process 900 may be executed by control circuitry 604 (e.g.in a manner instructed to control circuitry 604 by the media guidanceapplication). Control circuitry 604 may be part of a remote serverseparated from the user by of communication network 714.

At 902, control circuitry 404 receives a threshold period relating to auser retention of the second character 206.

At 904, control circuitry 404 determines a current period between thetime stamp and a current time.

At 906, control circuitry 404 determines that the current period exceedsthe threshold period.

At 908, control circuitry 404 recommends a third media asset 204 to theuser for the second character 206. Display 612 can be used to recommendthe third media asset 204 to the user for the second character 206.Speakers 614 can be used to recommend a third media asset 204 to theuser for the second character 206.

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningthat the first character 106 appears in the threshold number of thefirst plurality of segments in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Process 1000 may be executed by control circuitry 604 (e.g.,in a manner instructed to control circuitry 604 by the media guidanceapplication). Control circuitry 604 may be part of a remote serverseparated from the user by of communication network 714.

At 1002, control circuitry 404 receives video characteristics of thefirst character 106.

At 1004, control circuitry 404 receives a segment from the firstplurality of segments.

At 1006, control circuitry 404 extracts a set of frames from thesegment.

At 1008, control circuitry 404 selects a frame from the set of frames.

At 1010, control circuitry 404 determines whether the first character106 is in the frame based on the video characteristics of the firstcharacter 106.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the first character 106 is inthe frame based on the video characteristics of the first character 106,process 1000 continues to 1012. At 1012, control circuitry 404 increasesa counter associated with the first character 106.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the first character 106 is notin the frame based on the video characteristics of the first character106, process 1000 continues to 1014. At 1014, control circuitry 404determines whether there are frames remaining to be analyzed in the setof frames.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are frames remaining tobe analyzed in the set of frames, process 1000 continues to 1008.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are no frames remainingto be analyzed in the set of frames, process 1000 continues to 1016. At1016, control circuitry 404 determines whether there are segmentsremaining to be analyzed.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are segments remaining tobe analyzed, process 1000 continues to 1004.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are no segments remainingto be analyzed, process 1000 continues to 1018. At 1018, controlcircuitry 404 determines that the counter is greater than the thresholdnumber.

At 1020, control circuitry 404 determines that the first character 106appears in a threshold number of the first plurality of segments.

FIG. 11 depicts another illustrative flowchart of a process fordetermining that the first character 106 appears in the threshold numberof the first plurality of segments in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure. Process 1100 may be executed by control circuitry 604(e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry 604 by the mediaguidance application). Control circuitry 604 may be part of a remoteserver separated from the user by of communication network 714.

At 1102, control circuitry 404 receives audio characteristics of thefirst character 106.

At 1104, control circuitry 404 receives a segment from the firstplurality of segments.

At 1106, control circuitry 404 extracts a set of words relating to thesegment.

At 1108, control circuitry 404 selects a word from the set of words.

At 1110, control circuitry 404 determines whether the first character106 said the word based on the audio characteristics of the firstcharacter 106.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the first character 106 saidthe word based on the audio characteristics of the first character 106,process 1100 continues to 1112. At 1112, control circuitry 404 increasesa counter associated with the first character 106.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the first character 106 did notsay the word based on the audio characteristics of the first character106, process 1100 continues to 1114. At 1114, control circuitry 404determines whether there are words remaining to be analyzed in the setof words.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are words remaining to beanalyzed in the set of words, process 1100 continues to 1108.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are no words remaining tobe analyzed in the set of words, process 1100 continues to 1116. At1116, control circuitry 404 determines whether there are segmentsremaining to be analyzed.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are segments remaining tobe analyzed, process 1100 continues to 1104.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are no segments remainingto be analyzed, process 1100 continues to 1118. At 1118, controlcircuitry 404 determines that the counter is greater than the thresholdnumber.

At 1120, control circuitry 404 determines that the first character 106appears in a threshold number of the first plurality of segments.

FIG. 12 depicts another illustrative flowchart of a process fordetermining that the first character 106 appears in the threshold numberof the first plurality of segments in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure. Process 1200 may be executed by control circuitry 604(e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry 604 by the mediaguidance application). Control circuitry 604 may be part of a remoteserver separated from the user by of communication network 714.

At 1202, control circuitry 404 receives a name of the first character106.

At 1204, control circuitry 404 receives a segment from the firstplurality of segments.

At 1206, control circuitry 404 extracts a set of words relating to thesegment.

At 1208, control circuitry 404 selects a word from the set of words.

At 1210, control circuitry 404 determines whether the name of the firstcharacter 106 is the word.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the name of the first character106 is the word, process 1200 continues to 1212. At 1212, controlcircuitry 404 increases a counter associated with the first character106.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the name of the first character106 is not the word, process 1200 continues to 1214. At 1214, controlcircuitry 404 determines whether there are words remaining to beanalyzed in the set of words.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are words remaining to beanalyzed in the set of words, process 1200 continues to 1208.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are no words remaining tobe analyzed in the set of words, process 1200 continues to 1216. At1216, control circuitry 404 determines whether there are segmentsremaining to be analyzed.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are segments remaining tobe analyzed, process 1200 continues to 1104.

If control circuitry 404 determines that there are no segments remainingto be analyzed, process 1200 continues to 1218. At 1218, controlcircuitry 404 determines that the counter is greater than the thresholdnumber.

At 1220, control circuitry 404 determines that the first character 106appears in a threshold number of the first plurality of segments.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 8-12 may beused with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, thedescriptions described in relation to the algorithm of FIG. 8-12 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. For example, in some embodiments, several instances ofa variable may be evaluated in parallel, using multiple logicalprocessor threads, or the algorithm may be enhanced by incorporatingbranch prediction. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process ofFIG. 8-12 may be implemented on a combination of appropriatelyconfigured software and hardware, and that any of the devices orequipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 6-7 could be used to implementone or more portions of the process.

It should be noted that processes 800-1200 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 4-7. Forexample, any of processes 800-1200 may be executed by control circuitry604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by control circuitry implemented on userequipment 702, 704, 706 (FIG. 7), and/or a user equipment for selectinga recommendation. In addition, one or more steps of processes 800-1200may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 8-12may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition,the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 8-12 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed inany order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lagor increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should benoted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 4-7 could be used to perform one or more of the steps in FIGS.8-12.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent disclosure may be executed using processing circuitry. Theprocessing circuitry, for instance, may be a general purpose processor,a customized integrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmablegate array (FPGA) within user equipment 600, media content source 716,or media guidance data source 718. For example, a profile, as describedherein, may be stored in, and retrieved from, storage 608 of FIG. 6, ormedia guidance data source 718 of FIG. 7.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be appliedto, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for recommending media assets relatingto characters, the method comprising: receiving, at a server, a firstmedia asset comprising a plurality of media segments, each of theplurality of media segments comprising one or more video frames of thefirst media asset; for each respective media segment of the plurality ofmedia segments, determining, by the server, whether a character appearsin the respective media segment; calculating, by the server, a number ofthe plurality of media segments for which it was determined that thecharacter appears in that media segment; in response to determining, bythe server, that the calculated number is greater than a thresholdnumber of the plurality of segments, determining, by the server, whetherthe character has a corresponding data structure in a character viewingprofile; in response to determining that the character does not have thecorresponding data structure in the character viewing profile,generating, by the server, a recommendation of a second media asset inwhich the character appears; and transmitting, to a user equipmentdevice, the recommendation.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving a sensor input; and determining that the userviewed the threshold number of the plurality of segments in which thecharacter appears, based on the sensor input.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein recommending the second media asset to the user is further inresponse to determining that the user viewed the threshold number of theplurality of segments in which the character appears.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein determining that the calculated number is greater thanthe threshold number of the plurality of segments comprises: receivingvideo characteristics of the character; receiving a segment from theplurality of segments; extracting the one or more video frames from thesegment; selecting a video frame from the extracted one or more videoframes; determining whether the character is in the video frame based onthe video characteristics of the character; in response to determiningthat the character is in the video frame, increasing a counterassociated with the character; determining whether there are segmentsremaining to be analyzed; in response to determining that there are nosegments remaining to be analyzed, determining that the counter isgreater than the threshold number; and in response to determining thatthe counter is greater than the threshold number, determining that thecalculated number is greater than the threshold number of the pluralityof segments.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that thecalculated number is greater than the threshold number of the pluralityof segments, comprises: receiving audio characteristics of thecharacter; receiving a segment from the plurality of segments;extracting a set of words relating to the one or more video frames ofthe segment; selecting a word from the set of words; determining whetherthe character said the word, based on the audio characteristics of thecharacter; in response to determining that the character said the word,increasing a counter associated with the character; determining whetherthere are segments remaining to be analyzed; in response to determiningthat there are no segments remaining to be analyzed, determining thatthe counter is greater than the threshold number; and in response todetermining that the counter is greater than the threshold number,determining that the calculated number is greater than the thresholdnumber of the plurality of segments.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining that the calculated number is greater than the thresholdnumber of the plurality of segments, comprises: receiving a name for thecharacter; receiving a segment from the plurality of segments;extracting a set of words relating to the one or more video frames ofthe segment; selecting a word from the set of words; determining whetherthe name of the character is the word; in response to determining thatthe name of the character is the word, increasing a counter associatedwith the character; determining whether there are segments remaining tobe analyzed; in response to determining that there are no segmentsremaining to be analyzed, determining that the counter is greater thanthe threshold number; and in response to determining that the counter isgreater than the threshold number, determining that the calculatednumber is greater than the threshold number of the plurality ofsegments.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying afirst time at which the user viewed the first media asset; and storing atime stamp corresponding to the first time.
 8. The method of claim 7,further comprising: in response to determining that the character hasthe corresponding data structure in the character viewing profile:receiving a threshold period relating to a user retention of thecharacter; determining a period of time between the time stamp and acurrent time; determining that the period of time exceeds the thresholdperiod; and in response to determining that the period of time exceedsthe threshold period, recommending the second media asset to the userfor the character.
 9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:receiving an expiration period associated with the character;determining a current period between the time stamp and a current time;determining that the current period exceeds the expiration period; andin response to determining that the current period exceeds theexpiration period, recommending the first media asset to the user forthe character.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receivinga second character viewing profile of a second user; determining thatthe character has the corresponding data structure in the secondcharacter viewing profile; and in response to determining that thecharacter has the data structure in the character viewing profile,recommending to the user to refer to the second user.
 11. A system forrecommending media assets relating to characters, the system comprising:a user equipment device having control circuitry configured to receivemedia asset recommendations; and a server having control circuitryconfigured to: receive a first media asset to be viewed by the user, themedia asset comprising a plurality of media segments, each of theplurality of media segments comprising one or more video frames of thefirst media asset; for each respective media segment of the plurality ofmedia segments, determine whether a character appears in the respectivemedia segment; calculate a number of the plurality of media segments forwhich it was determined that the character appears in that mediasegment; in response to determining that in the calculated number isgreater than a threshold number of the plurality of segments, determinewhether the character has a corresponding data structure in a characterviewing profile; in response to determining that the character does nothave the corresponding data structure in the character viewing profile,generate a recommendation of a second media asset in which the characterappears; and transmit the recommendation to the user equipment device.12. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: receive a sensor input; and determine that the userviewed the threshold number of the plurality of segments in which thecharacter appears, based on the sensor input.
 13. The system of claim12, wherein the control circuitry configured to recommend the secondmedia asset is further configured to recommend the second media asset inresponse to determining that the user viewed the threshold number of theplurality of segment in which the character appears.
 14. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured, whendetermining that the calculated number is greater than the thresholdnumber of the plurality of segments, to: receive video characteristicsof the character; receive a segment from the plurality of segments;extract the one or more video frames from the segment; select a videoframe from the extracted one or more video frames; determine whether thecharacter is in the video frame based on the video characteristics ofthe character; in response to determining that the character is in thevideo frame, increase a counter associated with the character; determinewhether there are segments remaining to be analyzed; in response todetermining that there are no segments remaining to be analyzed,determine that the counter is greater than the threshold number; and inresponse to determining that the counter is greater than the thresholdnumber, determine that the calculated number is greater than thethreshold number of the plurality of segments.
 15. The system of claim11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured, whendetermining that the calculated number is greater than the thresholdnumber of the plurality of segments, to: receive audio characteristicsof the character; receive a segment from the plurality of segments;extract a set of words relating to the one or more video frames of thesegment; select a word from the set of words; determine whether thecharacter said the word, based on the audio characteristics of thecharacter; in response to determining that the character said the word,increase a counter associated with the character; determine whetherthere are segments remaining to be analyzed; in response to determiningthat there are no segments remaining to be analyzed, determine that thecounter is greater than the threshold number; and in response todetermining that the counter is greater than the threshold number,determine that the calculated number is greater than threshold number ofthe plurality of segments.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured, when determining that thecalculated number is greater than the threshold number of the pluralityof segments, to: receive a name for the character; receive a segmentfrom the plurality of segments; extract a set of words relating to theone or more video frames of the segment; select a word from the set ofwords; determine whether the name of the character is the word; inresponse to determining that the name of the character is the word,increase a counter associated with the character; determine whetherthere are segments remaining to be analyzed; in response to determiningthat there are no segments remaining to be analyzed, determine that thecounter is greater than the threshold number; and in response todetermining that the counter is greater than the threshold number,determine that the calculated number is greater than threshold number ofthe plurality of segments.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: identify a first time atwhich the user viewed the first media asset; and store a time stampcorresponding to the first time.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: in response to determiningthat the character has the corresponding data structure in the characterviewing profile: receive a threshold period relating to a user retentionof the character; determine a period of time between the time stamp anda current time; determine that the period of time exceeds the thresholdperiod; and in response to determining that the period of time exceedsthe threshold period, recommend the second media asset to the user forthe character.
 19. The system of claim 17, wherein the control circuitryis further configured to: receive an expiration period associated withthe character; determine a current period between the time stamp and acurrent time; determine that the current period exceeds the expirationperiod; and in response to determining that the current period exceedsthe expiration period, recommend the first media asset to the user forthe character.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitryis further configured to: receive a second character viewing profile ofa second user; determine that the character has the corresponding datastructure in the second character viewing profile; and in response todetermining that the character has the data structure in the characterviewing profile, recommend to the user to refer to the second user.